John Chrysostom, On Almsgiving

saying: Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And when, he says, was it prepared? When you provided food and clothing to the poor, when you bore fruit for the churches and in the 62.770 martyria, when you celebrated the memorials of the saints, when you received them into your house, when you visited the sick and those in prison; when you were doing these things, I was preparing this kingdom for you. When you are about to depart from life, do not wait for its hospitality; the master of the house comes to meet you, saying: Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you. For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. See the greatness of almsgiving, how no virtue is compared to it or preferred before it. For he did not say, that you kept your virginity, or that you fasted for my sake; he said nothing of the sort, but only, I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. Great indeed are fasting, and virginity, and the other virtues, but nothing is equal to almsgiving. Send your world ahead to that endless world, and you will find in that age these things which you provide here, just as the Lord also says: Make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of unrighteousness, so that when you fail, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. O the friendship of the Master, the foolishness of the rich; he himself invites, and the rich man is pained. Do you not understand, O man, what the providence of God is? Was God not able to give to the poor man as much money as he has given to you, and to make both you and him rich? Was he not able to bring down showers of gold, and to enrich the poor? Does God have to honor you on account of your wealth? Consider what is to become of you; look in the tomb at the bared bones; how are you different there, rich or poor? Are not all ash? Are not all dust? Where there is the king? Where the ruler? Where the potentate? Where the poor man? Truly all are equal corpses, and crawling bones, a multitude of worms.

Why are you arrogant toward the poor man, why do you loathe the weak? Does not God behold both him and you? Is he not also a likeness of him? Understand that God calls the poor man himself a brother, and makes him more honored than you on that day. For God is not unjust; he does not deprive the poor man of eternal life, and the heavenly kingdom, if indeed he endures his poverty; but to you he does not give two paradises, unless you send ahead from the gifts given to you by God. For inasmuch, he says, as you did not do it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did not do it to me, Come then, let us listen, and fill the bellies of the poor from what God has supplied you, so that you may find your storehouses full there. For if blessed is he who will eat bread in the kingdom of God once, how much more most blessed is he who is deemed worthy to dwell in it for the endless ages? Do not tell me that the poor are destitute and have nothing to give me on that day; their guarantor is rich.

For you are not to demand from the poor; it is God who repays you, and gives gifts to the poor, he who governs our life here, will also save us there, if indeed we do the things that are pleasing to him. For he who has mercy on the poor lends to God; and according to his gift he will repay him; according to his choice, he says. For where there is a good choice, there is a bountiful supply. Let us fear the day of the Lord, in which the master of the house will send to the **harvest** of the wheat, and will gather the wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. For the master of the house is the Lord, and the reapers are the angels, the wheat are the righteous, and the chaff are the sinners. Let us strive therefore to be found ripe wheat through almsgiving, so that we may enter into the eternal dwellings, which he who was taken up from us has prepared; with whom to the Father and to the Holy Spirit be glory, might, honor now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

λέγων· ∆εῦτε, οἱ εὐλογημένοι τοῦ Πατρός μου, κληρονομήσατε τὴν ἡτοιμασμένην ὑμῖν βασιλείαν ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου. Καὶ πότε, φησὶν, ἡτοιμάσθη; Ὅτε σὺ τοῖς πένησι τροφὰς καὶ ἐνδύματα παρεῖχες, ὅτε σὺ ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις καὶ ἐν τοῖς 62.770 μαρτυρίοις ἐκαρποφόρεις, ὅτε σὺ τὰς μνήμας τῶν ἁγίων ἐπετέλεις, ὅτε σὺ εἰς τὸν οἶκόν σου ὑπεδέχου, ὅτε σὺ τοὺς ἀσθενεῖς καὶ τοὺς ἐν φυλακῇ ἐπεσκέπτου· ὅτε σὺ ταῦτα ἐποίεις, ἐγώ σοι ταύτην τὴν βασιλείαν ἡτοίμαζον. Ὅταν μέλλῃς ἐξέρχεσθαι τοῦ βίου, μὴ περιμένῃς τὴν ξενίαν αὐτῆς· οἰκοδεσπότης προσυπαντᾷ σοι λέγων· ∆εῦτε, οἱ εὐλογημένοι τοῦ Πατρός μου, κληρονομήσατε τὴν ἡτοιμασμένην ὑμῖν βασιλείαν. Ἐπείνασα γὰρ, καὶ ἐδώκατέ μοι φαγεῖν· ἐδίψησα, καὶ ἐποτίσατέ με. Βλέπε τὸ μέγεθος τῆς ἐλεημοσύνης, πῶς οὐδεμία ἀρετὴ συγκρίνεται αὐτῇ ἢ προτιμᾶται. Οὐκ εἶπε γὰρ, ὅτι Παρθενίαν ἐφυλάξατε, ἢ ὅτι δι' ἐμὲ ἐνηστεύσατε· οὐδὲν τοιοῦτον εἶπεν, ἀλλὰ μόνον, Ἐπείνασα, καὶ ἐδώκατέ μοι φαγεῖν. Μεγάλη δὲ καὶ ἡ νηστεία, καὶ ἡ παρθενία, καὶ αἱ λοιπαὶ ἀρεταὶ, ἀλλ' οὐδὲν ἴσον τῆς ἐλεημοσύνης. Πρόπεμψόν σου τὸν κόσμον εἰς τὸν ἐκεῖ κόσμον τὸν ἀτελεύτητον, καὶ εὑρήσῃ ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι ἐκείνῳ ταῦτα, ἅπερ ἐνταῦθα παρέχεις, καθὼς καὶ ὁ Κύριος λέγει· Ποιήσατε ὑμῖν φίλους ἐκ τοῦ μαμωνᾶ τῆς ἀδικίας, ἵν', ὅταν ἐκλίπητε, ὑμᾶς δέξωνται εἰς τὰς αἰωνίους σκηνάς. Ὦ φιλία ∆εσπότου, ἡ ἀσυνεσία πλουτούντων· αὐτὸς παρακαλεῖ, καὶ ὁ πλούσιος ὀδυνᾶται. Οὐ συνίης, ἄνθρωπε, τί ἐστι πρόνοια Θεοῦ; οὐκ ἠδύνατο δοῦναι καὶ τῷ πένητι χρήματα ὅσα δέδωκέ σοι, καὶ σὲ πλουτίσαι κἀκεῖνον Θεός; οὐκ ἠδύνατο ὄμβρους χρυσίου κατενέγκαι, καὶ τοὺς πένητας πλουτίσαι; μή σε ἔχει τιμῆσαι ὁ Θεὸς διὰ τὸν πλοῦτον; Νόησον τί σε μέλλει γενέσθαι· βλέπε ἐν τῷ τάφῳ τὰ γεγυμνωμένα ὀστᾶ· τί διαφέρεις ἐκεῖ πλούσιος, ἢ πένης; οὐ πάντες τέφρα; οὐ πάντες κόνις; ποῦ ἐκεῖ βασιλεύς; ποῦ ἄρχων; ποῦ δυνάστης; ποῦ πένης; ὄντως πάντες ἴσοι νεκροὶ, καὶ ὀστέα ἕρποντα, πλῆθος σκωλήκων.

Τί ὑπερηφανεῖς τὸν πένητα, τί βδελύσσῃ τὸν ἀσθενῆ; οὐ θεωρεῖ ὁ Θεὸς κἀκεῖνον, καὶ σέ; οὐκ ἔστι κἀκεῖνος ὁμοίωμά τι αὐτοῦ; Νόησον ὅτι αὐτὸν τὸν πένητα ὁ Θεὸς καλεῖ ἀδελφὸν, καὶ προτιμότερόν σου ποιεῖ ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ. Ὁ Θεὸς γὰρ ἄδικος οὐκ ἔστιν· οὐκ ἀποστερεῖ τὸν πένητα τὴν αἰώνιον ζωὴν, καὶ βασιλείαν τὴν ἐπουράνιον, εἴ γε ὑπομείνῃ τὴν πενίαν· σοὶ δὲ δύο παραδείσους οὐ δίδωσιν, ἐὰν μὴ προαναπέμψῃς ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ δοθέντων σοι χαρισμάτων. Ἐφ' ὅσον γὰρ, φησὶν, οὐκ ἐποιήσατε ἑνὶ τούτων τῶν ἀδελφῶν μου τῶν ἐλαχίστων, οὐδ' ἐμοὶ ἐποιήσατε, ∆εῦρο τοίνυν, ἀκούσωμεν, καὶ πλήρωσον τὰς κοιλίας τῶν πενήτων ἐξ ὧν σοι ὁ Θεὸς ἐχορήγησεν, ἵνα εὕρῃς ἐκεῖ τὰς ἀποθήκας σου γεμούσας. Εἰ γὰρ μακάριος ὃς φάγεται ἄρτον ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἅπαξ, πόσῳ μᾶλλον μακαριώτατος ὁ ἐν αὐτῇ κατοικεῖν ἀξιωθεὶς εἰς τοὺς ἀτελευτήτους αἰῶνας; Μή μοι λέγε, ὅτι οἱ πένητες ἄποροί εἰσι, καὶ οὐκ ἔχουσί τί μοι δοῦναι ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ· ὁ ἐγγυητὴς αὐτῶν πλούσιός ἐστι.

Μὴ γὰρ τοὺς πένητας ἀπαίτησαι, ὁ Θεὸς δοῦναί σοι ἐκεῖνος ἀποδίδωσι καὶ τοῖς πένησι τὰς δωρεὰς, ὁ ἐνταῦθα τὴν ζωὴν ἡμῶν κυβερνῶν, καὶ ἐκεῖθεν ἡμᾶς διασώσει, εἴ γε ποιῶμεν τὰ ἀρεστὰ αὐτῷ. Ὁ γὰρ ἐλεῶν πτωχὸν δανείζει Θεῷ· κατὰ δὲ τὸ δόμα αὐτοῦ ἀνταποδώσει αὐτῷ· κατὰ τὴν προαίρεσιν, λέγει. Ὅπου γὰρ ἀγαθὴ προαίρεσις, ἐκεῖ δαψιλὴς χορηγία. Φοβηθῶμεν τὴν ἡμέραν Κυρίου, ἐν ᾗ ἀποστελεῖ ὁ οἰκοδεσπότης εἰς τὴν **ρίαν τοῦ σίτου, καὶ συνάξει τὸν μὲν σῖτον εἰς τὴν ἀποθήκην, τὸ δὲ ἄχυρον κατακαύσει πυρὶ ἀσβέστῳ. Ὁ γὰρ οἰκοδεσπότης ὁ Κύριός ἐστιν, οἱ δὲ θερισταί εἰσιν οἱ ἄγγελοι, ὁ σῖτος δὲ οἱ δίκαιοι, τὸ δὲ ἄχυρον οἱ ἁμαρτωλοί. Σπουδάσωμεν οὖν εὑρεθῆναι σῖτος ὥριμος διὰ τῆς ἐλεημοσύνης, ἵνα εἰσέλθωμεν εἰς τὰς αἰωνίους σκηνὰς, ἃς ἡτοίμασεν ὁ ἀναληφθεὶς ἀφ' ἡμῶν· μεθ' οὗ τῷ Πατρὶ καὶ τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι δόξα, κράτος, τιμὴ νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ, καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.